Yvanovich.com Family Portal

100 days and counting! We can harldy believe we have been in the Philippines that long. It all seems so far away, the comforts of home. A flush toilet, a hot shower, washer and dryer, and a soft bed. Wow, if anyone could imagine Anthony and I doing a complete 180 in our lifestyles, you would have a picture of us now. There is so much that we have learned to accept since starting our lives here. There is much that has changed in the past 100 days. Here is our top ten list of "You're doing what!?".

We have been here now for three weeks and in that time we have discovered there is a typical flow of conversation when first meeting someone new. They warned us of this during training but neither of us really expected it to happen. Below is a sample of conversation we have daily.

And, Anthony has finally been able to load some new pictures onto yvanovich.com. Make sure to check them out. If you don't already have an account, you will need to make one and then wait for permission to view the photos.

You know all those lovely clothes that we all so graciously donate to the Red Cross and other charitable organizations? Well, most of those clothes end up here! There are sold in stores called Ukay-Ukay and I swear I have seen some of my old things! Anthony and I both have a hard time finding clothes here, proably because we are so "healthy" according to the locals. And unless we want to buy second-hand clothes, we have to resort to tailoring.

Our first week at work is officially over and what a week it has been! We began our week with a welcome program that was attended by all important school staff and city leaders. It was a wonderful affair, with good food and music. Anthony and I both gave speeches (Yikes!) and were welcomed by all in the community. What a way to start off the week! It was back to reality and work started for us on Monday. Anthony and I have both found the schools in the Philippines to be very different than what we are used to in America.

Well, its official! We are finally Peace Corps Volunteers! We had a very special ceremony at the Peace Corps office in Manila, where the entire Peace Corps staff was present to witness our swearing in.

I would love to post and let everyone know that we are now officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers and have moved to our site. Unfortunately, I can't do that! Instead of having a wonderful night of celebrating at our swearing in ceremony, we spent it at the hospital.

Well, it's happen again, Katie and I our homeless for the second time in just a short time. We are in the transition time between being Peace Corps Trainee and a Peace Corps Volunteer. Training has been a crazy ride. Sometimes you just wish you could go home and be around familiar people and things, other times you consider never leaving. Katie and I are both excited to be starting our service, but it has been sad to say goodbye to all those people that have been so kind to us during training such as our host family. I imagine it will be even harder to say goodbye to Elsa, our language teacher. The next time we post we will officially be Peace Corps Volunteers.

Last week our group did our final Peace Corps Trainee activity. We organized a "Make-A-Book Workshop", can you tell we are mostly teachers? :-) Anyway, we started out by asking the kids in the area to collect their trash to use in our books.

In case the story wasn't enough, we have posted pictures of me eating balut! Note: Not suitable for vegetarians...

The alarm clock started buzzing at 5:30am. We were determined to get up early to beat the crowds. After snoozing for an hour and a half, we finally were able to drag our tired selves out of bed with the promise of a nap when we returned home! We were going to see one of Southern Luzon's most famous attractions, Pagsanjan Falls. View the Pictures!